Film Review: King Kong (1933)

Fig. 1 King Kong (1933) Film Poster

Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack’s ‘King Kong’ is a film of many themes from the

judgement of humanity to romance. A monster adventure film, ‘King Kong’ follows the plot of an

island-dwelling ape creature that lusts over the ownership of Ann Darrow (Fay Wray) after a director

takes his crew and star to shoot his film on Skull Island.

The film explores parables about human-animal relationships with the fear Kong generates

in Darrow, the hate generated in Darrow’s rescuers but also the fear and hate in Kong himself

towards those who will not leave him peacefully. The theme of Beauty and the Beast is evident

throughout with Kong portraying the alienated outcast, Darrow the constant and those around her,

the misinterprets. At points Kong seems like a lost child, trying to discover and understand his place

in life. One key scene that shows his childish behaviour is where he pulls a dead dinosaur’s jaw about

to check it is dead. That is his understanding of death…simplicity. This could also be applied to his

want for Darrow; young children are fixated by beauty around them and Kong sees this beauty in

Darrow so wants to keep her. A text that does this similarly is Matthew Weiner’s ‘Mad Men’ where

when character Betty Draper gets asked to babysit the young boy is extremely interested in her and

her pretty hair and asks to keep a strand.

Cooper and Schoedsack’s film is full of racist and sexual discrimination and conforms to

Tessa Perkin’s theory on stereotypes and whereas, a 1930s audience would see this as normal

behaviour a more contemporary audience may feel shocked by the shear amount that takes place.

Even though this may not have been Copper and Schoedsack’s intentions this may make audiences

now even more empathetic with King Kong. The use of binary oppositions of Darrow and Kong’s

colouring just makes Kong seem all the more alienated and different but this doesn’t stop him saving

Darrow from all the horrors she faces throughout the film, even if he himself is considered one. ‘But

“King Kong” is more than a technical achievement. It is also a curiously touching fable in which the

beast is seen, not as a monster of destruction, but as a creature that in its own way wants to do

the right thing.’ (Ebert, 2002) Kong’s acts to protect Darrow seem so selfless compared to John

Driscoll’s (Bruce Cabot) attempts. Kong only resorts to violence when he himself is targeted

whereas; the humans automatically start using whatever weapons they can get their hangs on. In

this respect Kong is represented as more human than the film’s humanity itself and the audience

follow with the ideology of Kong as an archetype of many films to come where ‘monster’ is actually

the hero.

Fig. 2 King Kong’s childlike behaviour

The sets and production themselves also add to the narrative of Cooper and Shoedsack’s

‘King Kong’. The environments are so well composed through their foreground, mid-ground and

background that the audience is just automatically drawn in and become ever more emotive with

the screenplay. In ways, these cleverly composed shots make us believe we are actually a part of the

film so when Kong defeats the dinosaurs and brings down the bi planes we release our breath and

cheer.

Kong is the real energy of the film and along with the stop motion animation and

animatronics he is brought further to life. Yes these effects are so old that some may feel they are

rather cheesy and laughable when matched against the special effects we have now but ‘King Kong’

isn’t about being the most realistically and powerfully animated film. Instead, it is the emotion

brought forth through these ‘laughable’ effects that are so time consuming to produce which makes

‘King Kong’ stand out from other films. We forget how old the film is because of how much this

emotion immerses us in the narrative. ‘While the special effects that really came to symbolize the

film look a bit ragged and prehistoric today, they carry an emotional weight that remains

unequalled by modern CGI trickery and model work.’ (Breese, 2004)

Fig. 3 The defeat of the bi planes

The actual stop motion itself is something ‘King Kong’ is remembered for. Its clumsy

jerkiness stands out throughout the film but it is something that causes much disagreement. Some

feel that the actual jerkiness adds to Kong’s character; imperfect, explorative and well human. Each

of these individual little movements brings its own emotion to the screen and some films nowadays

just don’t do this as effectively. The glossed over, smoothly operated animation just doesn’t match

in emitting emotion as the somewhat fragility of the animatronic Kong. ‘There has always been a

somewhat more frightening aspect to Kong because of the somewhat jerkiness resulting from stop

motion animation.’ (Hatfield, 2011) Yet others feel this animation makes Kong less appealing to

audiences because it feels destructive with its heavy footed motion making Kong seem much more

animalistic than he may be meant to be portrayed. However, this jerkiness could link in with the idea

of Kong as childlike; he is physically evolving as his personality does throughout the film.

Bibliography

Ebert, R. (2002) rogerebert.com

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20020203/REVIEWS08/202030301/102

3 (Accessed 06/11/11)

Breeze, K. (2004) filmcritic.com http://www.filmcritic.com/reviews/1933/king-kong/ (Accessed

06/11/11)

Hatfield, JJ. (2004) cityonfire.com http://www.cityonfire.com/king-kong-1933/ (Accessed 06/11/11)

List of Illustrations

Fig. 1. King Kong (1933) Film Poster From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.

Schoedsack. [film poster] On moviegoods.com

http://www.moviegoods.com/Assets/product_images/1010/433480.1010.A.jpg (Accessed

06/11/11)

Fig. 2. King Kong’s childlike behaviour From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.

Schoedsack. [film footage] On youtube.com http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBmlaDBVRik

(Accessed 06/11/11)

Fig. 3. The defeat of the bi planes From: King Kong Directed by: Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B.

Schoedsack. [film still] On fanpop.com http://images2.fanpop.com/images/photos/2800000/King-

Kong-1933-king-kong-2814496-2400-1891.jpg (Accessed 06/11/11)